Free essay on art appreciation

Art Appreciation

Art can be claimed to be the product of the minds. It is a result of creativity thus can be claimed to be a way of doing things that is initiated from the brain. Works of art express a lot about the author or owner since it is from within and is a direct illustration of the depicted ideas in the mind of the author.

Minoan paintings are one of the oldest forms of art. They traces back a history to about 1700B. C hundred years and began in Greece (Higgins, 1997). It had close resemblance of with the Egyptian fresco paintings.

Frescos involved mixing the color pigment s with water and applying to a plaster support which was usually a wall or ceiling coated in plaster. In some cases, the plaster was wet resulting in true fresco or dry to result in dry fresco. Frescos were used on large scale painting of walls or ceilings (Higgins, 1997).

Comparing the characteristics of the two fresco paintings (the Minoan and the Egyptian frescos) the following distinctive characteristics were evident.

For the Egyptian frescos, paintings were not vividly real and alive. This was because they used dry frescos in their paintings (Higgins 1997). Considering the Minoan paintings, they used wet frescos thus their painting appeared real. The colors were also vivid and curves realistic making the whole painting much alive.
The Egyptian paintings were not as traditional as in Minoan fresco and also showed some motion which was absent in the Minoan paintings (Kleiner, 2011).
The Egyptian painting showed more of imagination which resulted in spectacular products as opposed to the Minoan paintings where all the paintings were based on reality and nature with little or no imagination (Kleiner, 2011).
The element of color intensity and relation to certain aspects of the painting is more evident in Minoan paintings as compared to Egyptian fresco paintings.(Kleiner, 2011)
The Minoan people did not like war thus their paintings always revolved around the natural peaceful environment with flowers and goods of trade but the Egyptian paintings are war like or usually depict some form of violence (Kleiner, 2011).
The Minoan paintings were done by the local people while the Egyptian paintings were done by the royals. This resulted in the difference of conception of the natural environment in the two paintings. The differences in the paintings are of basic importance since they show the difference in environmental conception by people of different social classes in the locality (Higgins, 1997).

References

Higgins, R. (1997). Minoan and Mycenaean Art. Thames & Hudson. Boston.
Kleiner, F. S. (2011). Gardner’s art through the ages: A global history, Volume I (13thed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.